YouTube Taps Fox’s Alex Piper As Head Of Unscripted

YouTube has named Alex Piper, Head of Unscripted, North & South America. He replaces Ben Relles, who has transitioned into a new position leading interactive programming at YouTube.

Piper will lead all efforts working with top creators to develop and produce unscripted programming across genres including, talk, action, romance, horror, sci-fi and beyond, reporting to Susanne Daniels, Global Head of Content.

Piper also will oversee all live entertainment events as well as work on music and celebrity projects.

Piper’s appointment comes amid the platform’s recent shift in focus on unscripted series and specials. As Deadline reported last fall, YouTube was temporarily putting the brakes on new scripted development as part of its recent strategy recalibration to put stronger emphasis on unscripted fare. It is part of a larger business model shift at Google’s video platform, which will be moving all YouTube Originals in front of the paywall to be ad-supported, creating a single Originals slate for both AVOD (ad-supported video on demand).

“Alex Piper is a seasoned award winning reality programming executive with amazing taste and strong relationships who is incredibly well respected in the industry,” said Susanne Daniels, Global Head of Original Content for YouTube. “We are thrilled to have him join Youtube and bring his expertise to our diverse programming slate.”

Piper joins YouTube from Fox where he most recently served as Vice President of Alternative Entertainment where he led development for special events and series including So You Think You Can Dance, Hell’s Kitchen, Cosmos, The Four, Teen Choice Awards, and The 67th Emmy Awards

Prior to joining Fox, Piper served as Senior Vice President, Alternative Television for Asylum Entertainment, where he helped develop, launch and oversee Asylum’s unscripted slate that included 30 for 30 for ESPN, The Locator for WE tv, and Addicted for TLC.

Piper also served as Supervising Producer on the Peabody Award-winning medical docu-series Hopkins for ABC and was a producer for NBC Sports and NBC Olympics, receiving six Emmy Awards for Olympic and other sports events coverage.

YouTube’s unscripted slate also includes What the Fit? with Kevin Hart, Escape the Night, and Will Smith: The Jump as well as music docuseries and live specials including Ariana Grande: Dangerous Woman Diaries, Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated, Katy Perry: Witness World Wide.

This article was printed from https://deadline.com/2019/04/youtube-fox-alex-piper-head-of-unscripted-1202596064/